This week has been difficult. We had to put our 19-year-old cat down. Hunter had lost the use of his hind legs and I couldn’t bear to see him struggle. He’d had a good life and we will miss him.
On the day of his demise, I had coffee with a friend. It was an enormous help. Brenda is someone, who can talk on any topic, has loads of other friends for the sharing of their stories and is a font of invaluable information. Two and half hours – well spent!!
Judy, my friend from grade school, called when I was out. I called her the next day. I was still in fall-out from Hunter’s procedure and dealing with my son’s idea of employment or the lack there of… Judy always makes me laugh. We share a macabre sense of humour, bred from lives of similar difficulties. We did not “make book” on how many people would commit suicide on this incredibly dark and dismal day, but we thought about it. You bond with people who have come back from the brink and have not only survived, but thrived.
Lunch on Wednesday with another friend was also lovely. We are similar in many ways, but also very different. Gayle makes me look at my writing commitment and I am ever grateful for that. I love Gayle’s personal commitment to social service and the stories of her gorgeous poodle, Hugo, who is a support for victims, giving testimony in court. I wish I could match her emotional involvement in the community.
I have a date for a seasonal get-together with knitting friends. One friend now lives in Chatham, so we will meet in January. I love the extension of the season.
I received my first Christmas card from my friend in Cornwall, UK. We go back a long way. I will now write a letter to her and another friend in the north of England. All three of us were part of a flat of 5 young women living in London England in the late ’60s. It was a magical time!!
I also passed a milestone in preparation for my Camino walk. I walked 15kms last Sunday. I walked my usual 10kms in the morning and then after errands and lunch, I drove to the cemetery and walked again the 5kms into Mud Creek and back….and I wasn’t tired.
It’s difficult to pick just one slip for the Joy Jar this week, however, it might be that I have managed, in spite of my difficult personality, to have kept these precious friends for so long.
The picture – The coming of Winter and the Joys of Mud Creek
Have an awesome week.